Observing the Maelstrom is a publication that presents critical perspectives on technology, society, and design. It explores topics such as manipulative web design, biased algorithms, and commercial surveillance, by looking at the history of technology and the social impact of new media. The concept of technology is stretched and questioned. The texts consider shoes, smartphones, faucets, lightbulbs, arrows, typewriters, books, wheels, and quantum computers as technologies that expand our abilities and shape our behavior.
Typography always reflects the dominant techniques and technologies of its time. In the publication, the relationship between technology and typography is examined with a particular focus on the typewriter era and the typographic history of IBM. The typeface Artisan was popular with users of the IBM Selectric typewriter but has since been mostly forgotten. For the project, the author created a new digital version of Artisan. Therefore Artisan gains a second life as a digital typeface and its history is given a unique context in this publication.
